The present invention relates to an animal tracking system including a transmitter mounted on a collar and a hand-held radio receiver, and particularly to an animal tracking system having means for indication of the animal behaviour.
Tracking systems using radio frequency transmitters and receivers for detecting the direction or position of an animal, or a person or any other object are well known,
U.S. Pat. No. 5,289,163 discloses a child monitoring device which monitors the position of a child by detecting the signal strength of a radio frequency carrier from a transmitter attached to the child. If the signal of the radio frequency carrier is too weak, the child is too far away from the adult who has the child position monitoring device. When this happens, the adult is informed that the child has wandered too far away through the use of an audio tone or through the use of vibrations coming from the device. Once the adult is notified that the child is too far away, the device also has a locating display for indicating the relative direction of the child with respect to the adult. The display uses eight LEDs arranged around an emblem used to represent the position of the adult. The LED which lights up indicates the relative direction of the child.
Another publication, U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,800, discloses a transmitter attachment for hunting arrows including a hollow tubular member. The tubular member has a transmitter mounted in one end and a battery in the other end. When the arrow hits the target the transmitter is energised. A directional receiver is utilised to locate the arrow.
To control the whereabouts of a pet or an animal, a system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,923 can be employed. Said system uses one or more transponders to establish a boundary. The transponders receive an incident signal from a transmitter and generate a distinguishable return signal which, when the animal moves into proximity of the boundary, is received by a unit arranged on the animal to initiate application of an aversive stimulus which deters the animal from traversing the boundary.
Another more relevant prior art publication is U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,094, disclosing a radio tracking system adapted for domestic pets wearing collars. The system comprises a transmitting unit attached to the collar of the animal and a hand held receiver unit indicating strength of signals sent from the transmitting unit through illumination of a plurality of LED lamps. The receiver is pointed in a variety of directions, until a direction is identified which results in the strongest indicated signal, which illuminate more lamps than are illuminated when the receiver is pointed in other directions. This indicates the location of the animal wearing the transmitter.
Similar tracking systems preferably intended for hunting purposes are the Trackers.RTM. FTV466B and FTV 660 systems provided by Fintracker in Finland.
Neither of the above mentioned prior art tracking systems detects or indicates any particular behaviour of the tracked animal. However, an already known tracking system of the inventor has a motion detector. When a dog, wearing a transmitter of the system, does not move for some reason, the transmitter starts sending a particular signal to a receiver of the system used by the owner of the dog. The receiver indicates the signal to the user in a suitable way, such as by a light indicator or an audio signal. Since the direction also can be detected by the receiver the owner can find the dog and rescue it.